Chương 64: 64 Loop 2, Part 18

About an hour later—after my nap, of course—we had made our way to the second door. It was charred from all the fire, and a little waterlogged at the bottom, but it opened easily enough. I was still poring over my map. I had an actual map of the dungeon, drawn by the dungeon itself. Of course, there was probably something wrong with it. But right now, I was operating under the assumption that it would lead me to victory.

Finn, Flag, and Axe had all meditated during my nap, which meant they'd all recovered a nice amount of mana. I probably had the least at this point. But we were more than ready to move on. I stretched before floating past into the doorway, grateful I wasn't blown onto my ass this time. The next room was almost a carbon copy of the previous one, except there was no fire. I sighed in relief. Moss climbed the walls and floors, leaving almost nothing untouched.

It even covered most of the three exit doors from the room. Flag drifted in behind me and began talking to a root.

"Hello. My name is Flag. You are very long." He patted it. According to the map, the west exit was the way to the nearest key. So I immediately floated across the room for it. But as I approached the door, my excitement vanished. The west wall had a door covered in chains, just like the ones out in the main entrance hall. The same kind of thick iron ones without rust. Except instead of a key lock, placed onto the face of the door was a three-by-three grid, where nine dead lights sat.

"Okay," Finn said.

"Where's the light switch?" It was obvious, looking at the map, where they were. Because there were two rooms on either side of this one, both labeled with green dots. I had initially assumed that meant that they were just a waste of space. That was a pipe dream.

"Oh, no," I breathed, mostly to myself.

"This is gonna be a group project, isn't it?"

"Finn, you take the left room. Flag, you're on the right."

"Why do I have to..." Finn started, but I cut him off.

"Because Axe can talk to you, and Flag can talk to me. If I put Axe alone in a room, I'd be trusting him to follow switch instructions. And I don't want to do that." I looked at Axe.

"No offense."

"None taken. I would rather stay here with the commander."

"Commander?"

"Yes. Commander Lazlo. You are the leader of our party, are you not?" Finn and Flag floated away to the rooms. And the doors shut behind them.

"The doors just closed!" Finn's voice came through the stone, muffled. I could only hear him through [Subtitle], which was nice. But I wasn't sure him yelling was the solution to this. And then the leaves started falling down. Of course there was a timer mechanic. The first one landed next to me on the ground, and the moss underneath it went black immediately before shriveling away to nothing.

"Nope," I said.

"Nope, nope, nope, nope. That's not okay." I looked up. There were maybe thirty leaves in the air falling down at a slow, slow drift. It was survivable. For a while, probably. But the longer we took, the worse the consequences would be.

"Lazlo. He says there are leaves falling in there. What's happening?" And then Finn screamed loud enough to hear through the door.

"Tell him to just make sure he stays above them. They're only gonna be a problem if you let them touch you." Oh, these are lovely, Flag said through our tether, where only I could hear. I could just picture him grabbing a leaf and it crumpling his golem body. Fuck. But he continued talking." They're landing on me."

"Shit, Flag, no." I needed to stop him before he ended up destroyed.

"Don't let them touch you."" Why not?"

"Because they're gonna kill you?"" In that case, am I dead? They've been landing on me. But they're not doing anything at all. I mean, I don't mind. They're very pretty. If they land on me, they don't kill the green moss. Is that okay?"

"Finn is asking whether the leaves are poison. Axe said. He is asking whether you can see his back."

"Tell him we can't see his back. He's in a different room."

"He did not like that answer." Axe said.

"Tell him to stop panicking and just focus. It'll be okay as long as we get it fixed quickly."

"Finn says there are three switches," Axe replied.

"Flag, do you see any switches in the room? Finn says there are three in his." Oh, yes, there are also three in mine. The hardest part of this puzzle was going to be trying to get Finn to calm down enough to be usable. Because I'm sure he was panicking every second now. I did not like this loops version of him. Not at all. His tenuous grip on reality had torn something loose.

"Flag, do me a favor, bud, and press the first switch in front of you, please."" Which one is the first one?"

"The one closest to you."" Oh, well, they're all sort of close."

"Then pick one, and that one's the first one."" Okay, I picked it. It's very cold. I like it." He pressed it and the lights turned on. Four of the nine glowed. The top middle, the center, the middle right, and the bottom middle. They glowed a pale green and formed a shape that looked like a tiny little plus sign missing its left arm. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Press it again." The plus sign went dark. Which confirmed my suspicions. The switches acted like toggles, and this was going to be some sort of "lights out" puzzle, except in reverse. Which meant it was pretty solvable. But it also meant I was about to have to hold six different patterns in my head while two golems described things to me. I didn't like my chances without help. So I wasn't going to rely on my memory, no matter how good it was. I pulled out my wand and cast [Paper].

[Paper - Manifestation] Cost: 4 mana. Manifests a single sheet of blank paper. Duration: until dispelled. The paper appeared in my hand, just like when I cast [Ex Nihilo Caseum]. And then I cast another spell which would make my life so much easier. [Dictate]. [Dictate - Soul] Cost: 18 mana. Transcribes the caster's spoken words onto a designated surface. Duration: 1 hour or until dispelled. It was such a good spell. Say anything out loud, and it got written down for you.

Most of the professors hated when I used it. Their whole argument was that copying words out by hand was how you learned, and if a spell did the writing for you, then you walked out of the lecture having learned nothing. Which, yes, obviously, was the entire point of the spell. I didn't want to have to memorize the material in alteration. Why would I bother learning theory if I didn't need it to cast? But if I had it on paper and I ever did need it, I'd be able to easily find it again.

Almost nobody used the spell, anyway, because everyone preferred to do things the more difficult way and then brag about how hardworking they were. Bleh.

"All right," I said.

"Flag, your switches are going to be labeled 1, 2, and 3. You can use the cold one as 1, but decide which one's 2 and which one's 3. Axe, tell Finn his are A, B, and C. From the door, left to right."

"A, B, C."

"Axe. Tell him it's the labels for the switches." I wanted to throttle him because it was clear Finn wasn't going to get the message. Still, I knew my best friend, and he was most likely able to follow my directions. I let it go because the alternative was getting Axe to be normal, and I was pretty sure that was a lost cause.

"Flag, press 1 again. I'm going to describe what I see, and I need everybody not to talk while I do it."" Okay."

"Understood."

"One. Top middle, center, middle right, bottom middle." The words appeared on the paper in a neat little hand, which was much nicer than mine could ever be." Can I say something?" Flag asked.

"Not yet. Okay. Finn, press A." Nothing happened.

"Axe, tell Finn to press A."

"You said not to talk." Axe said.

"I meant while I was dictating. Please tell Finn to press A."

"Press A." Five lights came on, and I dictated.

"A. Middle left, center, bottom left, bottom middle, bottom right."

"He wants to know if that was good."

"Um, it's neutral," I said.

"Tell him to turn it off and press B." The board went dark and came back wrong.

"B. Top middle, middle left, middle right, bottom left, bottom right."

"He wants to know if that one was good as well."" Axe. He doesn't need to know if it's good."

"He is asking a lot of questions. Just questions and questions and questions."

"Welcome to my life. Tell him to turn off B and press C." The new lights came on, and I dictated.

"C. Top left, middle left, middle right, bottom middle, bottom right." That was five again. All three of Finn's did five, and every last one of them hit the bottom right, which was most likely gonna cause problems. I knew it. A leaf came down and almost hit my knee. The moss underneath me had grown completely black now. And the leaves were starting to pile up.

"He says his sleeve is gone. And he's worried about his back and neck."

"Okay, Finn's are off. Flag, go ahead and press number 2."" Oh, this one's warm. Hello, warm button."

"Flag, press the button." Sorry, I was busy talking to the button.

"It doesn't have a soul."

"I know. But one day it might." He pressed the button.

"2. Top middle, middle left, middle right, bottom middle, bottom right." Another set with five.

"Turn it off. Press 3, please."" Oh, that one's my favorite."

"But you said 1 was your favorite."" 1 is my favorite to touch, but 3 is my favorite to look at. It reminds me of desks."

"Can you press the button, buddy?" He pressed it.

"3. Top right, middle left, center, middle right, bottom right." And I looked at my paper. All six buttons in front of me. I tried to figure it out. Because the faster I figured it out, the less time I would spend experimenting until I got it right. And who knew, if we got it wrong, how many tries we actually had? Or even how much time until the leaves covered everything? The obvious way to go about things was to sit there and think through which switch cleared which buttons, and compare and contrast.

I did the math in my head, figuring out which order would make sense.

"How's it going out there?" Finn yelled, his voice muffled. But [Subtitle] picked it up anyway.

"Tell him it's going great."

"He says it is going great, but he is lying," Axe reported.

"He's frowning a lot."

"I'm not frowning. I'm just thinking." I tried to visualize the solution in my head. And then it came to me.

"Okay, everybody listen up. We're gonna press three buttons, in this exact order. Nobody fuck it up. Finn, press A." Five lights lit up.

"Now press B." The lightboard cleared itself, and then relit. Four different lights popped up. And then something landed on the back of my head. Fuck. A radiating pain coursed through my body, and if it weren't for my chair, I would have dropped down to the floor. I swatted it away from my head. I would be feeling that for a while.

"Flag, it's time to press your favorite switch."" Really? Oh, this is exciting." He pressed the button. And the nine lights on the grid went solid green. The chains released all at once and hit the floor in a heap. The door swung open, and inside wasn't even a real room. Just a shelf with the key seated on it. I grabbed the keyimmediately. And that was when the leaves stopped falling. The magic that had summoned them ceased. And the doors locking Flag and Finn in place opened.

Finn rushed out of the room, and he looked… well, probably the worst I had ever seen him, not counting his horrifying death. The leaves had eaten through his robes, and there were marks up and down his arms and face.

"Did we get it? Did it work?" Finn asked. In answer, I held up the key.

"Next time, you go into the death leaf room."

"That's not really how the assignments worked out."

"You're the one who assigned it."

"Yeah, based on the best distribution. Besides, it's not like I got out unscathed." I gestured at the top of my hair, which was clearly singed.

"Besides, would you really trust Axe to have done that properly?"

"I would have followed your instructions."

"You… you literally agreed with me. Why are you disagreeing now?" Finn was already hard at work healing his wounds, green light moving over his body.

"Oh, look," Flag said, drifting over. He was covered in leaves. They sat across his shoulders, his mannequin head, and every flat surface he had. Not one of them was doing any damage at all. He was perfectly fine. I sighed.

"We've wasted enough time. All right, time to move on." I led everybody back to the entrance hall.